House OK’s ‘municipal relief’ bill

The House yesterday unanimously approved a “municipal relief” package that includes a number of measures intended to help communities weather the ongoing economic downturn.

The package includes the following key provisions, which were supported by the MMA:

• Pension funding schedule: This provision would allow communities to extend their pension repayment schedule by 10 years, from 2030 to 2040, to help amortize unprecedented asset losses experienced during the past two years.

• Public safety mutual aid: This provision would allow communities to establish public works mutual aid programs for day-to-day maintenance and operations as well as broad-based emergency assistance mutual aid programs.

• Early retirement: This provision would allow communities, at their option, to offer a municipal employee early retirement program. The local executive and legislative bodies would have to approve the program.

The House bill also includes a 14-page consolidated amendment that contains the following MMA-backed provisions:

• Procurement: Cities, towns and school departments would be allowed to participate in cooperative purchasing agreements with public agencies outside of Massachusetts.

• Borrowing: Municipalities would have increased flexibility in municipal and regional school district borrowing.

• E-Billing: Municipalities would be able to establish a voluntary e-billing program.

• Abandoned or unclaimed checks: A one-year expiration period could be printed on checks, but the current requirement to attempt to contact the recipient by mail and provide public notice prior to reclamation would not change.

• Abatement process: Local assessors would be authorized to grant abatements without prior approval from the Department of Revenue.

• Tax amnesty: Towns would be allowed to adopt a temporary tax amnesty program, which would expire on June 30, 2011.

• Assessment certification schedule: The Department of Revenue would be allowed to adjust the scheduled year for triennial certification of local assessing practices in order to equalize the number of communities scheduled in each year and to facilitate or implement regional and other cooperative assessing arrangements.

• School and municipal coordination: Municipalities would be able to require that school and municipal officials meet annually to review the school district budget and to identify potential cost savings through shared services.

• Note fees: The fee for State House notes would be eliminated.

The consolidated amendment also included several provisions that were not in the package that had been released by the House Ways and Means Committee. These new provisions would create a new renewable energy revolving fund and betterment program, makes several changes to laws governing property tax administration, and create new laws governing ambulance contracts. The MMA is currently reviewing these provisions.

Additional amendments included in the House bill would:

• Allow municipalities to meet procurement requirements through purchase from the General Services Administration supply schedule

• Authorize procurement officers to use reverse auction to buy products and services in amounts greater than $25,000

• Clarify that intergovernmental transactions are exempt from Chapter 30B

The House bill does not contain a proposal to give communities the authority to make changes to employee health care plans outside of collective bargaining, a top priority of the MMA and cities and towns. The MMA estimates that giving municipalities the same authority that the state has to make changes in areas such as copays, deductibles and tiered networks would save communities $100 million statewide.

The package now heads to the Senate for consideration.